Mnk Advice please

I'm thinking of maining Monk now, was a Drg in turn 9 when I decided to take a break and did plenty of research on Rotations and was doing pretty well.

Thing is the monk rotation from what i've seen looks massively overwhelming, I play on a PS4 controller and using a controller is honestly the biggest perk for me playing the game.

A) How hard would you say the Monk rotation is at 60 compared to say level 50 Dragoons?

B) I have 24 buttons I can easily reach on the Ps4 will this be enough for Monk or should I just consider another class?

C) If any pro monks have any advice to simplify what it is I have to be doing as Monk that would be great.

Thanks in advance

Just my two cents, but the best monks tend to utilize their skills on what they need really. Hardcore players time their skills so that they know what to use when and not just following a combo per-say.

The mentality is usually Dmg combo at all times, throwing in abilities to keep your buffs and debuffs up when needed.

Having said that though, I'm a lazy monk so take that with a grain of salt.

The most simple thing to remember is the rotation itself. It's usually just Bootshine, True Strike, and Demolish while at the back before moving to the side for Dragon Kick, Twin Snakes, and Snap Punch, from level 50 to level 60. If you don't have Dragon Kick, use Bootshine instead from the back before moving to the side for the rest of the combo.

The class is not as hard as people make it out to be, it's just doing those same two combos over and over again the majority of the time. Anything you have off global cooldown you can really use between the moves. Be sure to keep up Touch of Death as well, you can use it and it won't remove a combo. Also, with the exception of Shoulder Tackle, none of your moves will bind you in place, so you can and should be able to move easily out of AoEs and such.

The trick to the Monk rotation is that it's actually very simple:

Check: Do you need to refresh Touch of Death, and can you do it without losing Greased Lightning? Do it.
Stance 1: Can you/do you need to refresh Dragon Kick? Do it from the side. Else, Bootshine from behind.
Stance 2: Do you need to refresh Twin Snakes? Do it from the side. Else, True Strike from behind.
Stance 3: Do you need to refresh Demolish? Do it from the back. Else, Snap Punch from the side.

Your goal is to keep Greased Lightning stacked as high as possible as much as possible, because dropping it for even a split second resets it entirely and you lose a significant chunk of damage during that time. Perfect Balance might let you rush straight to three stacks, but using it messily can cause it to just fall off afterwards. Weave your off-GCDs between attacks whenever possible, but know the fights well enough to decide if Shoulder Tackle is worth using now or not.

This mostly results in you alternating the first two stances, and using Demolish about 1/3rd of the time. But it's that fluidity - and the quick recognition and movement to not be wasting time between attacks - that makes mastering Monk tricky. Not to mention what happens once you start having to run from enemies and make snap decisions because your timers aren't lining up easy anymore. Minimizing the time you're away (and now, post-50, being smart about what actions you take when you are forced to be away!) is even more key than other melees, I find, because of the threat of losing GL.

I've put it this way before to people: Monk is not necessarily a terribly hard class to play - but mastering it has a huge weight on little optimizations and decisions and tricks.

If you're wanting simplicity or predictability at level 60, I'd say monk is a good choice.

Monk at 50 is more complicated than Dragoon at 50 in my opinion, but at 60 I'd say Dragoon gets more complicated from what I've heard. Particularly with how one of their skills can proc 2 different combos for 2 different skills that have different positionals, therefore not letting you plan ahead for your positioning.

Monk's complexity doesn't really change at 60. All monks have to do that is new is remember to rev up Chakra stacks during downtime and know when to use form shift to save GL stacks, or know when to use tornado kick to eat GL stacks when it's beneficial to do so(such as right before a boss leaves the arena for a longer amount of time than necessary for form shift to save GL), though tornado kick really isn't all that crucial.

this pic pretty much sums up the monk rotation at 50. You get a couple of off gcd moves on your way to 60 so I would fit those in the rotation once you have Blood for Blood and Internal Release up.

http://i.imgur.com/ZkIcL6e.png?1

I fell in love with monk as a dps for its play style. You are constantly moving and actively managing your rotation instead of 123 > dot > 145 etc. Also the skill ceiling is higher compared to DRG, (nin might be just as hard or easeir depending on your latency). I'm also waiting for the "end-all-no need to make another good looking weapon" item called the Emperor's Fists that all Monks are waiting for.

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Originally Posted by This_is_Seager

A) How hard would you say the Monk rotation is at 60 compared to say level 50 Dragoons?

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Rotation alone? Easier.

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B) I have 24 buttons I can easily reach on the Ps4 will this be enough for Monk or should I just consider another class?

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Yup. There's a few abilities you don't need to get to easily most of the time, and one ability (one ilm punch) that's basically useless outside of unnecessary stuff you can only do if you're going into DF tuned content with a static (like one ilm punching off Cloud's stoneskins during the eating phase and continuing to DPS her while allowing other people you trust to handle clouds). And then Haymaker is only useful when you're soloing for the most part because, well, when are you being attacked enough to get dodge procs when there's a tank? Pretty much only when looking away from gaze attacks. So, you know. Less button bloat there.

Should be able to easily fit everything important in 24 buttons, and even have room to stick a couple things that are nice but not super important into those as well (like keeping fists of earth and fists of fire on them to stance dance for unavoidable damage mechanics).

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C) If any pro monks have any advice to simplify what it is I have to be doing as Monk that would be great.

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You need to learn every opening between AoEs/every add spawn during invincible phases/anything else that you can possibly slide an attack into in order to keep up greased lightning. For instance, in T9 if you shoulder tackle Nael immediately upon her jumping to deliver iron chariot you can get off an attack and get out of iron chariot during that time to keep up GL when it would normally drop off. Or on the last boss of Amdapor Keep Hard you can run into his AoE after downing tethered adds and hit him until it's about to cast then run out and shoulder tackle back in to keep GL up.

At sixty that becomes a little more forgiving, just try to land snap punch/demolish before exiting an AoE if you can and then form shift back up to them. If there's more time before you can move in, OR if you're only moving out for a second and you don't need to form shift to keep up GL, OR if you're going to lose GL anyway you should be using meditation to build back up Chakra during fights. Sometimes you can forbidden chakra 2 or more times during a fight if you do this right (with Bismark you can generally build it up every time you come off his back, for instance). Also, try to save Forbidden Chakra when B4B and GL3 are both up. You can't use it very often and it's very high potency so you should try to make every use of it hit as hard as possible.

The second most important thing is probably your opener. Pre-form shift it's basically PB -> Snap punch x 3 -> B4B + Internal Release (you might wanna move one of these to between your snaps if you have latency issues and can't get two oGCDs off without clipping) -> Demolish -> Touch of Death -> Bootshine -> Twin snakes -> Snap punch -> Dragon Kick -> Elbow Strike -> True Strike -> Howling Fist -> Demolish (to refresh while B4B is still up) -> Normal rotation.

At 60 I do form shift to Coeurl before pull if possible (usually is, but some tanks like to stand around until coeurl is about to drop off THEN pull, if this happens you're stuck with level 50 opener) -> Snap punch -> PB -> Snap punch x 2 -> Dragon Kick -> B4B + Internal Release -> Demolish -> ToD -> Bootshine -> Twin snakes -> Forbidden Chakra -> Snap punch -> Elbow Strike -> True Strike -> Howling Fist -> possibly demolish, possibly snap punch (depends on your skill speed and what your dot/buff timers are looking like) -> Normal rotation.

I do them that way to get Demolish and ToD fully buffed out as soon as possible. Other people like to put Demolish near the start for more dot ticks, but then you get less time fully buffed on it. It's not a huge difference in potency either way. I also save my oGCDs until after twin snakes in both of those for that extra damage buff on them.

My main is MNK, I'm pretty good, when I want to be. MNK is pretty easy to play, I have really good muscle memory, I don't even need to look at my crossbar. But MNK (I think) is more relaxed than DRG, my wife plays DRG and I'm like WTF.... I mean it doesn't look all that bad I can play it, but I think MNK is more laid back.

As for 60 MNK vs 60 DRG (you said 50) what us MNKs got is more OGCD, two of the new abilities require 5 chakra, so not much of a difference just weaving in a few new abilities. 60 DRG lol, my wife works a lot so I've been leveling her drg, Blood of the dragon, fang and claw, Wheeling Thrust (both of which are pretty much the same) and then Geirskogul level 60 (haven't got yet). To use F/C and WT, you need to have Blood of the dragon up, and you have to finish a full thrust or chaos thrust combo to use them, assuming Geirskogul is the same? I find it ok myself, but it really is a lot to keep up with compared to MNK.

To each their own though.

You should simply make sure that all your buffs and debuffs are active all the time. Don't really focus all the time on positional, especially if the mobs are moving or have annoying moves.